It is 1985. One year ago, two guys named Kevin and Peter started publishing a comic book about martial-arts enabled terrapins out of their kitchen. In two more years, you won't be able to turn on a TV or look at a small child without seeing little plastic green shells and multicolored bandannas, turtles all the way down. In the meantime, though, there was only really one licensee for Eastman & Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and that was Palladium Books. This is their product.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1: Hundred Penny Press m 2013: 1 issue (1 indexed) Gallery: August 2013: Palladium Books: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness Revised Edition b 1990: 1 issue (1 indexed) No Covers 1990: Panini Deutschland: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Die neuen Abenteuer: 2014: 1 issue (0 indexed) Add: 2014. First Publishing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Book II $ 30 Add to cart; SOLD OUT Palladium Books Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness – Signed with head sketch remarque $ 75 Read more; TMNT Collected Book Volume Two (1990) – SIGNED $ 65 Add to cart; First Publishing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Book II – Signed with head. Sure, other games did this back in the day–GURPS and HERO System come to mind. However, with those, there were a lot more options, lot more math. It wasn’t complicated math, it was just the amount of effort that it took to figure it all out was a bit more than with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness. Tales of the Turtles (1) Team Mirage (5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Day (2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History (2) Ten Seconds Later (1) the Marvel Method (1) things change (1) ThinkGeek.com (1) thumbnail (3) TMNT (258) TMNT #1 (1) TMNT #1 first printing (1) TMNT #32 (3) TMNT 25th anniversary (3) TMNT 32 (1) TMNT 4Kids.
Written over the course of three and a half weeks by Eric Wujcik, and illustrated throughout by Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, TMNT&OS was the second Palladium-published book I owned as a child, and the only one in my collection not written and illustrated by the Kevin Siembieda and Kevin Long. The artwork is a significant departure from the typical Palladium style, consisting primarily of repurposed panels from early issues of the black-and-white Ninja Turtles comic book.
There are a few examples of new and original artwork, in the form of character portraits for cases where the original comic does not provide an example of a particular critter.
The book also includes two brief comics. The first is a short, original strip titled Don't Judge A Book..., involving the Turtles, in Halloween costumes, fending off burglars in the Second Time Around antique shop. The second reprints the Ninja Turtles' origin story, excerpted from the first issue of the comic book.
Character creation follows the same random generation system that we all know and love/hate from Rifts. There are eight Attributes: IQ, Mental Endurance, Mental Affinity, Physical Strength, Physical Prowess, Physical Endurance, Physical Beauty, and Speed. A score for each is generated by rolling 3d6, so starting values should range from 3 - 18, with 10 being considered 'normal' or 'average.' Scoring 16 or higher provides a bonus, which is sometimes incremental, other times exponential, depending on the Attribute. These bonuses do not advance at the same rate for every stat, nor does each stat necessarily follow a linear progression.
With its Attributes assigned, your mutant-to-be is just a few d% rolls away from completion. Random rolls determine your Animal Type (Urban/Rural/Wild/Wild Bird/Zoo), and each type has a second chart to determine your specific animal species, each with its own unique traits, strengths, and weaknesses. Species also determines your character's initial size class and Bio Energy Points (BIO-E), which provide certain bonuses and penalties to physical and mental stats (based on size), as well as the ability to improve certain characteristics and buy additional traits. This sort of mostly-randomized generation is pretty standard fair after something like V&V, but TMNT&OS takes it once step further, giving you a third d% chart to roll for the cause of your character's mutation. This may not sound like a big deal, except that it also involves randomly rolling your character's background and history. A quick roll of the dice determines whether your little critter was accidentally exposed to a leaking Mutagen container, or was deliberately engineered in a lab, as well as how he was raised from young mutant to teenager (trained in a secret government facility, raised as a human child by James Franco, etc), and determines his reactions and attitudes towards humanity. That's a lot of fluff to hinge on two ten sided dice.
Having worked out your Attributes, spent BIO-E to purchase humanoid characteristics (as desired), and figured out your background, it's time to look at skills and equipment. The number of skills your character can select, any free skills he qualifies for, any starting training, equipment, and cash, are all informed by his randomly rolled background. The skills list is absurdly detailed, easily on par with V&V's super power list. Skills are broken down by category and program, though several seem redundant to the modern gamer (Detect Ambush and Detect Concealment being separate, Disguise and Impersonation being separate, for example). Fortunately, you get to select a lot of skills, so it's fairly easy to build a competent character without having to sacrifice something obvious.
For this week's sheet, I warmed up my d6's d% and rolled up the following stats:
Attributes: 3d6 per stat
IQ: 7
ME: 14
MA: 9
PS: 9
PP: 10
PE: 16
PB: 11
Spd: 8
Animal type: 9: Urban
Specific Animal: 60: Pet Rodent (hamster)
Cause of Mutation: 91: Deliberately engineered & raised as assassin.
Starting cash (from mutation cause) 1d6 x $20,000
Cash roll: 6: $120,000.
![Other Other](/uploads/1/1/9/3/119350621/149849681.jpg)
Hamster Special Attributes:
BIO-E: 80
Growth Level 1
IQ: +2
ME: +1
PP: +1
Growth Level modifiers:
IQ: -8
PS: -12
PE: -4
Spd: +7
SDC: 5
So, before using BIO-E to physically alter my character, I get the following Attributes:
IQ: 1
ME: 15
MA: 9
PS: -3
PP: 11
PE: 16
PB: 11
Spd: 15
I have never, ever thought that I would ever blog the phrase 'hamster special attributes.' Also, this is the world's dumbest, fastest, weakest, and most durable assassin. Granted, there's a reason my little hamster is so dumb. As I mentioned earlier, growth and size are extremely important in character creation; right now, my little mutant is an entirely average sized hamster, with a whole mess of BIO-E points to spend. Breaking out the BIO-E worksheet, it's time to burn through those points to bring him up to human size, and purchase things like hands, walking on two legs, and speech. Bringing my critter up to size 8, gets rid of the IQ, PS, and PE penalties, but also costs me my speed bonus.
IQ: 9
ME: 15
MA: 9
PS: 11
PP: 11
PE: 20
PB: 11
Spd: 8
Skill selection is where the game starts to break down. Apparently, earlier editions of TMNT&OS had different rules for skills and firearms than the eighth printing being used here; the skills in this edition were lifted from Palladium's Robotech and Revised Heroes Unlimited games, and pasted in without much editing to make them fit. The result is a somewhat haphazard explanation of the skill system. The game at one point explicitly states that no skill can be taken more than once to accumulate more than one bonus, however some skills DO provide bonuses if taken more than once; the combat example given in the book explicitly mentions that a level 1 character has taken the Fencing skill three times, contradicting the earlier writeup on skills. In other words, don't take any skills more than once, unless the skill comes from a different edition of the game where it was designed to be taken more than once.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Strangeness First Edition Pdf Answers
Furthermore, due to the mix-and-match firearm rules, a .45 automatic pistol does the same damage as a 12 gauge shotgun, while a 9mm pistol does half as much, and a katana falls right in the middle. On the plus side, the game does not add in Palladium's Occupational Character Class system; I suppose the author decided that the ten thousand different animal writeups was enough.
Here is my attempt to put together my final character sheet for TMNT&OS. I think it's playable, but honestly, I'm not sure. I feel about as confident with this sheet as I do with my Form 1040 every year, and it was exactly as much fun to fill out, while taking five or six times longer.
The character portrait was drawn by my eternally patient fiancee, who decided she also wanted to create a character sheet. After a brief explanation of the creation, growth step, and BIO-E rules, she generated the following:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness is long out of print, and will likely never see the light of day again, as Palladium Books no longer has the license. All images have been sourced from the 1989 Revised Edition.
After The Bomb is Palladium's spiritual successor to TMNT&OS, and is available at RPGNow.
The official Palladium Books website obviously contains additional information about the Palladium Megaverse products, particularly Rifts.
The official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles website is strangely devoid of all information about the game, and the Mirage comic series it was based on.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Strangeness First Edition Pdf Download
In conclusion,
Designer(s) | Erick Wujcik |
---|---|
Publisher(s) | Palladium Books |
Years active | September 1985 – January 2000 |
Genre(s) | Science fiction, superhero |
System(s) | Megaversal |
200px Cover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role-playing game core rulebook | |
Author | Erick Wujcik |
---|---|
Illustrator | Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman |
Cover artist | Kevin Eastman |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
September 1985 | |
Media type | Print (paperback) |
Pages | 112 |
ISBN | 978-0-916211-14-1 |
Followed by | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness is a role-playing game based on the comic book created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The core rulebook was first published by Palladium Books in September 1985 – a couple years before the Turtles franchise achieved mass popularity – and featured original comic strips and illustrations by Eastman and Laird. The rules and gameplay are based on Palladium's Megaversal system. Some of these rules, outlining the basics of character creation and providing a short list of animal options, were later incorporated in the second edition of Heroes Unlimited.
Characters
Turtles and rats were not the only option for mutatedanimals; a rather large list was made available of animals that could be mutated in a wide variety of ways (intelligence, human looks, functioning hands, bipedalism, etc.). Some animals allowed access to different varieties (most notably dog breeds), and rules allowed for the creation of new animals. Characters had access to psionic powers and could come from a wide variety of sources (e.g., natural mutation or man-made experiments), as well as a variety of educational backgrounds.
The mutant animal player characters in the game lived in our modern world, functioning on the fringes of human society. One of the more innovative details of the game was the alignment system which used qualitative terms like 'principled' and 'miscreant' along with a list of diagnostic behaviors such as 'would kill an innocent bystander' or 'would never accept stolen property'. These hypothetical behaviors pegged a character as fitting one of the particular alignment terms.
Campaign setting
The original TMNT game partially mirrored the universe of the TMNT comic books and provided statistics for the Turtles, The Shredder, and other characters from early in the series. However, the adventures included with the book were completely independent of the TMNT universe, and brand-new characters were also introduced.
![Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Strangeness First Edition Pdf Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Strangeness First Edition Pdf](/uploads/1/1/9/3/119350621/268181694.jpg)
According to Kevin Siembieda, the 1987 television series and live-action movies, which made considerable changes to the Turtles' universe, had a severe negative impact on the popularity of the role-playing game. In an interview, Siembieda claimed that depictions of the Turtles in other media made them seem so childish that 'no self-respecting teenager, even if he thought the Turtles were cool, or thought the Ninja Turtle game was cool, was going to be caught dead playing it. So our sales plummeted from 50,000 copies in a year to 12,000, and the next year that dropped to 6,000.'[1]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Strangeness First Edition Pdf Reader
In January 1986, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness spawned a game with an alternate setting, that of a post-apocalyptic earth populated mainly with mutant animals and residual humans, called After the Bomb, which soon developed into a separate, though compatible game series.
Palladium announced that a second edition of the game would be released in the fall of 1997.[2] However, due to the cost of maintaining the license as well as delayed production and low pre-orders for the proposed title, Palladium decided to end its license with Mirage Studios in January 2000.[3] Years later, in a February 2007 interview, Siembieda hinted that Palladium might consider re-licensing the property depending on the performance of the CGI movie and other factors,[4] but this prospect has not since been revisited.
Editions
The original edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness was published with a section detailing a comprehensive list of mental illnesses ostensibly drawn from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.[5][6] Players could either select a form of insanity as an optional step in character creation or randomly assign one during the course of gameplay as a result of their characters undergoing some kind of trauma, such as demonic possession, near-death experience, or torture. This section also featured an extensive list of sexual deviations which included pedophilia and homosexuality (in terms of the game, a traumatic event could potentially induce a character to convert from one sexual orientation to another), despite the latter having been officially declassified as a mental illness more than a decade before. After parents of younger players objected to the list of sexual deviations – which had previously appeared in the Palladium Role-Playing Game and Heroes Unlimited rulebooks – Palladium Books covered it with a plain white sticker. Subsequent printings removed the list of mental illnesses entirely, although occasional references to it remained elsewhere in the book. Copies of the first edition sell for a premium on auction web sites like eBay.
Supplements
- After the Bomb (January 1986)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (June 1986)
- Road Hogs (October 1986)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Guide to the Universe (May 1987)
- Mutants Down Under (June 1988)
- Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (April 1989)
- Truckin' Turtles (November 1989)
- Turtles Go Hollywood (March 1990)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Strangeness First Edition Pdf Free
Reception
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness was reviewed in the 'Open Box' column of White Dwarf Issue 79 - Jul 1986, and also White Dwarf #83 (Nov., 1986), and Different Worlds #44 (Nov./Dec., 1986).
The game was also reviewed in the Dutch RPG magazine Magister Issue 30 - Sep 1991.
References
- ↑Meadows, C. 'Robotech Master' (February 19, 2007). 'EPISODE 22c – Kevin Siembieda Interview, Part 3'(MP3). Space Station Liberty. TalkShoe. Retrieved February 20, 2007.External link in
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(help)<templatestyles src='Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css'></templatestyles> - ↑Gross, D., ed. (September 1997). 'Superheroes the way you like 'em! (Advertisement)'. Dragon. Renton, WA: TSR (239): 91. ISSN0279-6848.
|access-date=
requires|url=
(help)<templatestyles src='Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css'></templatestyles> - ↑Siembieda, K. (January 2000). Smith, W (ed.). 'Good-Bye, Ninja Turtles'. The Rifter. Taylor, MI: Palladium Books (9): 7–8. ISBN978-1-57457-037-3.
|access-date=
requires|url=
(help)<templatestyles src='Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css'></templatestyles> - ↑Meadows, C. 'Robotech Master' (February 19, 2007). 'EPISODE 22b – Kevin Siembieda Interview, Part 2'(MP3). Space Station Liberty. TalkShoe. Retrieved February 20, 2007.<templatestyles src='Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css'></templatestyles>
- ↑Bundy, S. S.; et al. (September 1, 2002). '3.05. What is the 'sexual deviations' table?'. The Palladium FAQ. Retrieved August 5, 2011.<templatestyles src='Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css'></templatestyles>
- ↑User: Muskie (August 23, 2007). 'Thread: [TMNT] First Edition Sexual Deviancies?'. RPGnet tabletop roleplaying forum. Berkeley, CA: Skotos Tech. Retrieved August 18, 2011.<templatestyles src='Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css'></templatestyles>
External links
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles official discussion board at Palladium Books Forums of the Megaverse
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at RPG Geek Database
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at RPGnet Game Index
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